The Latest - Al Qaeda

During the “Chiefs of Defence” meeting held in Kabul earlier today, Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff claimed that his country “has eliminated all terrorist sanctuaries from its soil” and blamed “residual signatures of terrorists” on Afghan refugees living there. more...

Sajna Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike in North Waziristan, not in Afghanistan like some Pakistani officials have claimed. Sajna lead the group's powerful Mehsud faction, was close to al Qaeda, and was responsible for murdering thousands of Pakistanis. more...

Hay'at Tahrir al Sham has released two videos and a short statement claiming that its men downed a Russian warplane. The Russian defense ministry confirmed that the jet was lost after it was struck by a "a portable anti-aircraft missile system." more...

The US Department of Defense has curbed the release of unclassified information on Taliban controlled and contested districts and other key metrics about Afghan security force performance to the Special Investigator General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR). more...

The designation of Taliban leaders on the Peshawar Shura highlights the continuity of the Taliban-al Qaeda relationship in Afghanistan and Pakistan that has endured more than 16 years of war against the US and its allies. more...

The US Treasury Department designated six Taliban-Haqqani figures as terrorists today. Treasury's identifying information locates five of the six -- including three senior Taliban finance officials and the deputy leader of the group's military commission -- inside Pakistan. At least two of the newly-sanctioned men have ties to al Qaeda. more...

The State Department has added Khalid Batarfi, an al Qaeda veteran and senior al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) leader, to the US government's list of specially designated global terrorists. Batarfi threatened the US and Jews in a video released by AQAP just yesterday. more...

Ibrahim al Qosi, a former Guantanamo detainee, is one of three senior AQAP leaders featured in a video released this week titled, "Secrets, its Dangers and the Departure of the Best of Us." The video is focused on the US drone campaign and the jihadists' lapses in security. more...

The US is seeking the extradition of Christian Ganczarski from France, where he has been imprisoned since 2003. A French court convicted Ganczarski on terror-related charges for his role in the Apr. 11, 2002 suicide bombing at a synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia. The bomber called Ganczarski beforehand to receive his "blessing." A newly-released indictment focuses on Ganczarski's other ties to al Qaeda, including a plot targeting American interests in Australia. more...

CENTCOM identified the AQAP operatives who were killed as "key Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leaders." Their responsibilities included "external operations facilitator," an operative who paves the way for attacks outside of Yemen, an arms facilitator, and a member of its proselytizing council. more...

Events

On the heels of the Pentagon delivering its draft plan to destroy the Islamic State to the White House, an important question remains on who would benefit from such a defeat. How can the White House and Pentagon craft such a strategy without emboldening al-Qaeda? How will Iran and Syria be impacted by any denigration of IS control? Who fills the vacuum? How should the administration and others assess the situation?

A Conversation with John Cassara, Svante Cornell, Jonathan Schanzer, Tom Joscelyn, and John Hannah

Turkey has been rocked by a sweeping corruption scandal. Prime Minister Erdogan has responded by reassigning policemen and prosecutors, and clamping down on press freedom. While these actions have prompted only muted criticisms from the West, some of the cases raise troubling questions about terrorist activity in Turkey – including financial ties to Iran, Hamas, and even al-Qaeda figures. FDD has produced research recently on these issues. But many questions remain.